Research Paper
Identification and functional analysis of ammonium transporter family in potato
Wan Li, Zilin Zhang, Ziyu Zhou
Published on: 10 November 2025
Page: 721 - 732
DOI: 10.6165/tai.2025.70.721
Abstract
In order to understand the characteristics and functions of potato ammonium transporters (AMT) family, bioinformatics and molecular biology research methods were used to systematically identify and analyze potato AMT family members (StAMTs) in this study, and preliminarily studied the functions of StAMTs in Arabidopsis thaliana. The results showed that there were 8 StAMTs in potato, which were divided into two subfamilies and distributed on different chromosomes. The amino acid residues of 8 StAMTs ranged from 460 to 512, the molecular weight ranged from 49.66 kDa to 55.11 kDa, the phosphorylation sites ranged from 34 to 55, the aliphatic indexes were all greater than 89, and the grand average of hydropathicity was all greater than 0. The 8 StAMTs had 11 transmembrane domains, and all of them were expressed on the cell membrane. The isoelectric point of most members was less than 7, the instability index was less than 40, and there was no signal peptide. The analysis results of the phylogenetic tree, motif composition, gene structure and GO annotation showed that 8 StAMTs had different functions. The results of expression pattern analysis under different treatments showed that StAMT1.1 may be a low affinity protein and StAMT2.5 may be a high affinity protein. In addition, the functions of StAMTs were studied in Arabidopsis thaliana. The results showed that different genes had different effects on survival rate, root length, fresh weight and ammonium nitrogen content. Under normal and NH4+ sufficiency conditions, the survival rate, root length and fresh weight of the transgenic lines overexpressing StAMT2.3 or StAMT2.5 were significantly lower than those of wild type Arabidopsis thaliana (Columbia-0) or had no significant change. However, under NH4+ deficiency condition, the survival rate of the transgenic lines overexpressing StAMT2.3 or StAMT2.5 showed no significant change, but the root length (about 33%-37% or 15%-27%) and fresh weight (about 87%-105% or 84%-97%) were significantly higher than those of Columbia-0, indicating that StAMT2.3 and StAMT2.5 may be high-affinity proteins. In summary, for StAMT2.5, the results of expression pattern analysis in potato and function analysis in Arabidopsis thaliana were consistent, it may promote the utilization efficiency of NH4+ in potato under NH4+ deficiency environment, so StAMT2.5 can be used as a candidate gene for further study. The results of this study are conducive to further understanding the function of potato StAMTs, and provide a reference for studying the molecular mechanism and mechanism of potato absorption and utilization of NH4+.
Keyword: Ammonium nitrogen, Ammonium transporters, Arabidopsis thaliana, Solanum tuberosum
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